Whether your focus is B2B, B2C, or both, the experience you create for your customer is about so much more than the final sale. A walk through the grocery store serves as an excellent reminder of the many factors that can deepen your relationship with the consumer to create brand value.
Before you arrive at the checkout line to pay for what’s in your cart, multiple points of contact have already made an impact on your purchase decisions and intention to return.
- A weekly special may bring you into the store in the first place.
- The design of the store impacts the aisles you choose to browse as you shop.
- A conversation with a friendly butcher who happily answers your questions about the cut of meat you’re considering will help guide your decision about the steaks that ultimately end up on your grill.
- The strategic placement of a complementary product may remind you of something you would have otherwise forget you needed.
- An unexpected savings promotion applied at checkout confirms your choice to shop at this store was a wise one.
As we design experiences for the digital consumer, we must also build in helpful points of contact throughout the purchase cycle that deepen the relationship beyond the transaction. Most revenue comes from repeat buyers, so the more value we can provide them with, the more value they’ll deliver back over the course of the customer lifecycle.
Closely examining our customers’ actions allows us to discover new opportunities to create value for them through meaningful touchpoints. Their clicks, questions and comments often point to the types of assists they will appreciate the most. Value-added services are limited only by your creativity as an organization and could include:
- Customer service around clothing sizes
- Product compatibility information
- Highly responsive mechanisms to interact with customer service representatives
- Idea and inspiration boards
- Knowledge bases and user forms
- Helpful resources to support sales reps in their day-to-day tasks